Browsing by Author "Brown, Barbara Anna"

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    Exploring Science Teachers’ and Science Teacher Administrators’ Experiences of Instructional Leadership
    (2022-02) Dhawan, Rekha; Shanahan, Marie-Claire; Burns, Amy Marie; Brown, Barbara Anna
    Purpose: Examine how high school science teachers and principals experience instructional leadership; specifically, science educators’ understanding and lived experiences of the phenomenon of instructional leadership. Research Method: This study used a qualitative phenomenographic approach to gather the experiences of science teachers and principals in high schools located in Alberta, Canada. This approach explains and supports interviews as the data source and the number of participants (N = 9) of the study. Findings and Analysis: Data revealed three closely related categories from participants’ experiences: definitions of instructional leadership, thematic elements identified from data, and their reflections on the value of science teaching knowledge for instructional leadership. Findings identified the interdependence of the factors affecting instructional leadership, how instructional leadership is organized, and the factors’ relevance for developing science teaching knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and pedagogical context knowledge (PXK) to support science teaching knowledge were found to be significant. Science teachers and principals accepted the importance of instructional leadership, but principals did not view it as their primary responsibility; they reported being preoccupied with other duties. Participants’ experiences portrayed some common themes to support science teaching knowledge and instructional leadership: collaboration, spontaneous interactions and feedback, peer instructional leadership, shared conversations about professional development needs, teachers’ input in making decisions about the needed development, science principals’ classroom knowledge, PCK and PXK to guide science teaching, trusting relationships, microworlds of science educators, professional socialization, and reflection-in-action of their practice. Conclusions: Instructional leaders’ iii content knowledge, PCK, and PXK are central components of science teaching knowledge for instructional leadership.
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    Schools of Tomorrow: Evaluating Alberta’s Standardized Public Schools
    (2017) Reichelt Guimaraes, Carly; Monteyne, David P.; Boutin, Marc Joseph; Brown, Barbara Anna
    This thesis explores how a “prototypical” process of planning and designing school buildings in the Province of Alberta, Canada, has evolved since the implementation of new procedures in the early years 2000, and assesses how aspects related to the built environment have been addressed. This has been done by examining architectural drawings as well as data-based documents, by conducting interviews with specific architects and members of school administration, by distributing questionnaires to teachers, and by visiting three schools designed through this new approach. The literature review, looked into the most relevant architectural design principles used around the world to develop successful educational buildings, and the impact of design on the school environment and its users. This allowed, by comparison with the design principles for successful educational buildings, for the success of Alberta’s standardized design for new public schools to be evaluated, and to recommend necessary architectural adaptations that will benefit users and school planning processes in Alberta, and throughout the globe.